I am the essence of overconfidence! I am speculation, adventure; the spirit of pursuit; the stag howling for its winsome yet anonymous mate. I am the love call of evolution; the perfume and color of the flowers as they offer their pollen to the gentle buzz of the bees.
I am sex itself, gentlemen. I am life. I am appetite!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Ashes

There was a time when people were funny. Not any more. Standing in line to get my Dasavatharam ticket, I saw (no heard) the usual stereotypical people who hang around theaters and talk loudly for the benefit of others. Its hard to assign the psychological basis for trying to impress people in public places. Impressing people whom you don't know and you will never see, seems futile. Blogs and TFMpage forums exist. So they can, I suppose. Ability to talk thamizh and be understood in a public place in US gives some people the kicks and they cash in on it during events and cinema theaters. So there was this gang of 7 boys and 1 girl. 4 of those boys were loud and boorish. They were doing the formulaic thing of talking loudly to the girl, ottifying her to impress other unknown people standing by. They were also trying to impress her and did the usual vaazhishal things to her. They belonged to a large gang of 20-30 people. Almost all of them decided to pass loud comments during the movie. While it is true that I didnt pay $15 to listen to these idiots, the least they could have done is be funny. Unsurprisingly, all those people cracked poor jokes and were consistently annoying. The concept of 'Ottifying' is dead. 'Vaazhishaal' reigns supreme

As luck would have it they sat right next to me, behind me and in front of me.

Last summer, I watched a fungus called Sivaji thrice and the 2nd viewing proved to be better. Dasa is bad but not Sivaji-bad. Being a Kamal fan and all that - I wanted to see Dasa another time given the radically re-adjusted expectations. For the second viewing we booked a 9:30 PM show to specifically avoid desi parents who bring noisy kids to the cinema hall. That didn't work. I found that I was stuck between gangs of boys who thought their stupid comments were actually humorous and desi parents whose kids wouldn't shut up. Maybe those parents hoped that the kids would eventually sleep. But they didn't. A kid kept asking loud questions to her dad every time the audience laughed. Her dad wouldn't shut her up. I felt like slapping the kid like the way Srividhya did in PunnagaiMannan. As for the comedy guys. These were 'achu-bichuambichu' guys who would be spit on if they ventured to make a loud comment in PerInbaVilas theater, Nellai. In sleepy town America they assumed that they were some big pistha or dada.

Unfortunately, theater jokes have had a sudden demise. I have made similar posts like this before and probably will do so again. People and their comments aren't funny anymore. I vaguely remember movie-watching experiences where people used to be 'witty'. They passed comments that were genuinely insulting and hilarious. I remember enjoying listening to the comments of the theater crowd in many places from Palaymkottai to Thanjavur. Nowadays, people aren't original and mostly people mimic the same movie dialogs with the same accent. Suddenly the yuppie crowd has discovered the coolness of watching a movie first-day-first-show and we have terribly unfunny people trying to be a hero in theaters. Its as if the Goundamanis, Thangavelus and Viveks of the world have been buried dead and we are now left to deal with Y.G. Mahendrans, Charlies, KaathadiRamamoorthi, SuraliRajans and Karunas of the world.

A better idea would be to burn the DVD of MMKR and put an obituary for humor in 'The Hindu'.

Last summer, I watched a fungus called Sivaji thrice and the 2nd viewing proved to be better. Dasa is bad but not Sivaji-bad.

Ok. I will take that with a pinch of salt. At least you don't ramble for 1750 words about how "He" has brought Chaos Theory to the masses and then finally concluded with the clincher that Kamal used Chaos Theory and butterfly effect concepts first 20 years ago, as a plot device to kill Delhi Ganesh's character in Apoorva Sagodharargal.

watched it even when you didnt like it the first time? were forced into it I guess.

that line kinda hurt but then it your view and I respect that. so lets not get into any rediff type slander, I gonna follow this post coz I predict a few coming.

Coming to the point, even I observed a gang from UMich(sorry!) who were making over the top dialogs just so that maamis around them would smile. Little did they realise that those maamis are busy with their noisy kids and there not even a wry smile in the hall.

Was really irritating as they yelled lakalakalaka everytime napolean spoke and made some 'gulti' joke everytime bally naidu appeared.

7 to 1 is a pathetic ratio... is Seattle metro that bad??? anyways, either theater jokes have had their demise or we simply are growing old to eppreciate them. One ReKOST... Don't use Dasa as a pointer to Dasavatharam.. that's the short form used for Dasaratha in Banker's Ramayana! :-)

Those 'trying-to-be-funny' losers are periya torture. And that too they get over-excited in places like movie halls. As u say, whats the point in impressing unknown ppl? Maybe someone should tell'em ppl spit on their jokes. Idiots.

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Hawkeye somehow managed to get educated, switch careers from engineering to business and secure gainful employment. He got employed because he failed to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming a house husband. He does not believe in luck but thinks he is the most unluckiest man in the world (read disclaimer). Such self-contradictory thoughts continue to separate the author from reality. He claims he can 'do humor' because he cant be taken seriously.Hawkeye is a nomad, a wanderer who has studied in more schools and lived in more places than he cares to remember. He has travelled to many many states within India and has seen almost all the important vacation spots. He constantly tries to bring in "I went to switzerland for my honeymoon" in unrelated conversations (like this one) and hopes to visit all the other countries in Europe. Loves to visit and learn historical information about Indian Temples. He is ramping up on the ancient metaphysical philosphy called Vishishta-Advaitha ( Qualified Non-Dualism) and loves to talk about it with anybody who claims to be an expert.